What's the best way to sort redundant project folders?

Question

I'm a web developer with an organization issue. I run Mamp Pro for my PHP/MySQL environment.

My localhost root points to ~/Sites. I want to keep this as close to my real server environment as possible, so I have sub folders for each project (e.g. localhost/project_folder).

My issue is that I keep other project files elsewhere on my drive. Right now I have a project resources folder, with subfolders that mirror the name of the project folder in my ~/Sites. These folders usually house my proposals, or PSD mockups, and everything that doesn't belong on the projects "server environment" (i.e. localhost).

Is there software I can use to define "Projects" where I can add all the relevant folders to one project, so I can access all the project information/files in one place?

Answer 1

Have you tried using symlinks or even just aliases created in the Finder?

The idea would be that you create your "Projects" folder, and then within that Projects folder you can have a folder for each project. Each project folder would then have an alias to the folder in your ~/Sites folder and an alias (or you just move the files) to your project resource folder.

Aliases can be created by clicking on a folder and choosing "Make Alias" from the File menu. (Command-L). Symlinks need to be created on the command line or using a plugin for the Finder. To make things easier I'd recommend putting that Projects folder in your sidebar as well.

ln -s /PATH/TO/SRC /PATH/TO/DESTINATION/